SQ 776: Capital punishment foes were outspent in the effort to pass it, representative said

At time of publication, 1,948 of 1,956 precincts were reporting that 66.43 percent were for proposal, 33.57 percent were against proposal

OKLAHOMA CITY – Death penalty opponents were “disappointed but not defeated” when Oklahoma voters approved a state question that places capital punishment into the constitution.

Connie Johnson, representative of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said capital punishment foes were outspent in the effort to pass State Question 776. Meanwhile, SQ 776 supporters said this move will prevent the Oklahoma judiciary from declaring the death penalty unconstitutional.

“As far as we’re concerned, it still represents progress because the death penalty isn’t as strong as they think it is,” said Johnson, a former state senator.

The constitutional amendment will provide all methods of execution are allowed, unless prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. In any case where an execution method is deemed invalid, the amendment will provide that “the death sentence shall remain in force until the sentence can be lawfully executed by any valid method.”

State Question 776 forbids the death penalty from being construed as the infliction of cruel or unusual punishments. However, the constitutional amendment does not apply to federal courts.

Johnson said she expects the voter-approved measure will be litigated.

“There’s a disregard for the checks and balances within the constitution,” she said. “It will dictate to the courts how they have to rule. That will be the biggest sticking point.”

At the same time, Johnson acknowledged that SQ 776 opponents could have coordinated a better campaign against the measure.

“We could have gotten the word out more,” she said. “It was literally a popularity contest because the death penalty is so popular. For us, there was a lack of awareness and a lack of education about this question.”

Still, the state question created debates over the death penalty, a scenario that encourages Johnson and other coalition members.

“We want to have these conversations,” she said. “We want people to know the death penalty is still arbitrary and ineffective at creating a deterrent to crime.”

Supporters of SQ 776 were not available for comment Tuesday night.

With 1,938 precincts out of 1,956 reporting late Tuesday, the “yes” vote had collected 66.4 percent of the vote compared to 33.5 percent of those against the measure. The vote tally showed 923,604 affirmative votes and 465,922 “no” votes.

Ryan Kiesel, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, said in a prepared statement that voters “chose to enshrine the death penalty in our state Constitution.”

“This decision comes on the heels of our state’s increasingly brutal failures to apply the death penalty,” he said in the statement. “This state question is nothing more than an attempt by our government to shirk responsibility for their repeated incompetent attempts to rehabilitate an inherently broken system of state-sponsored killings.”

Kiesel cautioned that passage of SQ 776 should not be considered a referendum on capital punishment.

“Opposition to the death penalty in Oklahoma is higher than ever,” he said. “We must continue to push our elected officials to answer the pressing questions about our flawed execution system, most importantly whether or not in a modern society we should be engaging in this brutal and inhumane practice at all.”

Oklahoma’s execution method came under fire beginning in 2014 with the execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhed in pain when the trio of drugs did not work as expected. Department of Corrections officials executed another death row inmate using the wrong drugs and were in the process of killing Richard Glossip until his execution was halted by Gov. Mary Fallin.

Oklahoma’s preferred method of execution is lethal injection followed by nitrogen gas, electrocution and firing squad. The nitrogen gas alternative was approved by the Oklahoma Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin in April 2015. Christian, a candidate for Oklahoma County Sheriff, was the author of the nitrogen gas measure.

A survey from 2015 shows 69 percent of Oklahomans support the death penalty. However, some citizens are starting to change their minds due to exonerations nationwide and the current controversy over botched executions involving lethal drugs and the inability of some states, including Oklahoma, to acquire the deadly cocktails.

As of September 2011, 273 people, including 17 Oklahoma death row inmates have been exonerated by use of DNA tests, according to data from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The same survey shows that in one year opposition to capital punishment in Oklahoma has doubled – from 12 percent in 2014 to 24 percent in 2015.

Another poll released mid-November 2015 shows 52 percent of Oklahomans support the idea of sentencing a murder defendant to life in prison without parole instead of the death penalty.